I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the high-production mounting and inflation of a tubeless tire to a wheel.
II. Description of the Prior Art
The seating and inflation of pneumatic tires on a high-production basis has necessitated the development of specialized equipment for this purpose, and various systems have been proposed to accomplish bead seating and inflation in a minimum of time and with a minimum of supervision and manual operation.
A typical tubeless tire system begins with a loader which places individual wheels in position on an indexing conveyor. Simultaneously, tires are processed through a soaper and pass through a loading device which positions the tires on the indexing conveyor properly located on top of the wheel and ready for mounting. The indexing conveyor then transports the tire and wheel through an automatic tire mounting station which will simultaneously position both beads of the tire between the rims of the wheel. The mounted tire is then transported to an automatic inflation station which will inflate the tire, whereupon the inflated tire and wheel assembly is checked and delivered to a final assembly line for assembly to a vehicle.
In the mounting of the pneumatic tires upon the wheels, the tire beads are simultaneously forced over one of the wheel rims. As the wheel rim is of such a size as to "spread" the beads as they are forced thereover, considerable abrasion occurs between the rim and the tire beads during mounting. This close engagement between the rim and the beads is necessitated by the dimensional relationship of the rim and the tire beads which, once the tire is mounted, must cooperate to form a complete and sealing relationship as is necessary with tubeless tires.
The simultaneously forcing of the tire beads over the wheel rim can damage the tires beads and adversely affect the sealing thereof with the wheel rim once mounting has been completed. This problem is greatly accentuated by modern-day tires wherein the tread width is considerably larger than prior tire designs, and the tire side walls are relatively smaller.
Part of the problem of damage to the tire beads has been overcome by the application of a lubricating liquid or soap to the tire beads to facilitate the movement thereof over the rim. High-production lubricators have been provided which have greatly facilitated the application of the soap to the tire beads and have overcome many of the aforementioned problems. An example of such a bead lubricator is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,658,152. Examples of prior art systems which mount both tire beads to the wheel simultaneously are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,461,938 and 3,978,903.
Examples of other tire mounting systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,661,053, 1,850,053 and 2,907,379. The aforementioned apparatuses, while performing satisfactorily, require periodic inspection to ensure that the system is operating in an optimum manner, otherwise damage to the tires may result when dual bead mounting occurs.